Dear Editor,
What is the Vishwamintra Persaud case really about? Is it about a child molester vs a brilliant doctor? A man being framed vs the implementation of the Sexual Offences Act? What Dr Madan Rambarran and the Medical Council knew vs what they didn’t? Karma vs giving a person another chance? One child vs many; your child vs mine? The answer is all of that and none of that.
What it’s actually about, in my opinion, is the man/woman reading this right now. I know some are saying, “I don’t have any children,” or “I would make sure I watch my children all the time and not leave them alone with anybody,” or even “The man got connections; nothing’s gonna happen to him.” But what kind of society do we want to live in? What values do we live our lives by? What lessons are we teaching the children around us?
Do we want to live in a society where women and children are abused with impunity on a daily basis, and where rapists walk the streets freely? Wait, that already happens in Guyana. Well, how do people feel about that? Do they mind? Do they want their children to live in a world like that? Of course not; most of us are decent people and we love our children and want the best for them. That includes a life without rape or abuse.
To get that kind of life/society, however, each of us has to do something. We have to stand up for ourselves and the children, we have to speak out when we see injustices and things we don’t agree with, and we have to act to help change the things that we think are messed up. We cannot just sit back and think that somebody else is going to fix it for us.
Dr Vishwamintra Persaud might be a good doctor. The point is that being good at your job does not exempt you from the rules that all the rest of society has to follow. It’s about the standards that we as a society accept and allow. There are already too many known abusers, rapists and predators in positions of power in Guyana. If we want this to change, we need to do more than just bemoan that fact. Otherwise we are just as guilty as they are for violating and letting down the women and children of Guyana. Plus when other would-be abusers look around and see the others getting away scot free, nothing’s going to stop them. It’s already that way now; do we really want it to get worse?
To all the people who are saying that Guyana needs doctors and if they had a sick child they would go to Dr Persaud, let me ask them what they would have done before he started working at GPH. Obviously, they would have dealt with whichever doctor was available. True, Guyana desperately needs properly trained doctors and nurses, especially at the Georgetown Public Hospital where most people access care and where maternal mortality rates are way too high. However, we as a people need to stand up for ourselves and insist on higher standards. Just as we should not use other countries’ expired goods or get sold their damaged machines, so we should not accept care from people that other countries have convicted as sex offenders.
Parents cannot protect or be at their children’s side all the time. A predator who wants to prey will find the opportunity to do so. And if not one’s own child, then someone else’s. A hospital is the perfect hunting ground, for it is a place where people are at their most vulnerable, and conversely, doctors at their most powerful.
Again, it’s about the kind of society we want to live in. Once we knowingly condone, protect, defend, and celebrate sexual abusers/child predators and put them in positions of power, we are signing the death warrant of all that is good and decent in society. If we don’t care because it’s not our child, we’re already zombies and no amount of prayer can save us.
This case is a litmus test for what we are willing to put up or not put up with. You get what you ask for; you don’t just take what you can get. We need to respect and love ourselves and our children and demand better. We deserve better. No convicted sex offenders in our public hospitals or anywhere else for that matter.
Let us not stand by silently while injustice is being perpetrated in our country. Let us fight for our rights, for a better society for our children, for all the children of Guyana. We should make our voices heard. Take action. Support each other; together we can change things for the better.
Yours faithfully,
S Nageer
